Mister Cocktail

What do you know about Drambuie? Most people already got the country wrong, thinking it’s French and pronounce it that way. How wrong. It’s Scottish and therefor pronounced as Drambuie. The whiskies used for Drambuie come from the Speyside, perhaps the most famous part of Scotland for producing whiskies, but certainly the most productive. This areas delivers somewhat sweeter whiskies and are perfect to combine with herbs and spices. Which is why Drambuie tastes so nice.

Quite recently, the line of this over a century old family-owned company has been extended with the Drambuie 15 Years Old.  The name kind of reveals what’s inside the spirit, but if you haven’t guessed by now: it’s Speyside Whisky with a minimum aging of 15 years. The master blender has accumulated a fair amount of great whiskies and could choose from them to blend together with the famous elixir of Drambuie. With a secret formula I might add, but with a little browsing one can get to anise, saffron and cinnamon, although nowhere confirmed.

The bottle: I know good things come in small packages, but in this case it literally came in small packaging. The good people of Drambuie sent me a 5 cl sample bottle and although I can say it looks nice on the picture, I only can describe a bottle when I’ve held it in my hand.
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The nose: In the nose there’s a loverly maltiness, that is accompanied by honey and spicy notes, together with hints of citrus, like orange and lemon. The spirit is bottled at 43 % ABV (or 86 proof) and that’s noticeable here, really emphasizing the influence of the aged whiskies.
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The contents: A very warm taste and a silky mouth feel, despite the high ABV. The citrus notes come through really nice and it’s remarkable how this spirit goes from whisky to liqueur and back several times in one sip: sweet notes, malt, orange, wood, butterscotch, a little salty even at times.
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The mixability: This one is enjoyed best neat (I used a Glencairn Glass) or over ice.

Overall: A very rich spirit that has all the maturity of a Speyside whisky and the characteristics of a great liqueur. It rivals other liqueurs like Bénedictine B&B and Grand Marnier 100 and will be very nice additition to your spirits collection. But then of the one that you want to drink regularly!
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All over the world bartenders are always looking for new combinations of flavours and spirits. Thta’s how it used to be and that’s how things will probably be forever. Because by doing this, new cocktails are born, just like you would try to do at home with cooking or maybe when you’re mixing your own cocktails.

Last week I wrote about the Gin Basil Smash – a cocktail that made  it’s way from a local bar to the gallery of Contemporary Classics. That cocktail was created by a great bartender called Jörg Meyer and the good thing is that around the world there are more bartenders curious enough to explore new combinations of flavours.

One of these bartenders is Max La Rocca, bartender at Ohla Boutique Bar in Barcelona, well worth the visit for a number of reasons, the person said being a one of them! Max is a very talented host and bartender, being amongst the leading explorists of new ways to create cocktails and drinking experiences for their customers. His bar previous bar was famous for their afternoon tea and he was looking for ways to incorporate the drinking of cocktails into the teadrinking-ritual. Also because he liked to serve cocktails rather then serving tea. The cocktail he designed for this is based on the way to serve tea, poured from a teapot. He named his drink “Irish Mermaid” for two reasons: the base ingredient for this cocktail is Irish Whiskey and the second reason is to pay his homage to the statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, where the Cherry Heering Liqueur is from.

Method:
Pour 35 ml a good quality Irish Whiskey, 10 ml Cherry Heering, 10 ml Aperol, 5 ml Orgeat Syrup and 2 dashes Angostura Bitters in a small teapot. Add ice and pour the contents into a small container, with enough room for the liquid to move around and to start foaming. Put the liquid back in the teapot and repeat all five or six times, when you think it’s ready!

Serve the drink in a nice cocktailglass (I used a small wineglass here) and use a nice zest of orange to garnish the drink.
You can do this by cutting a 2 x 5 cm piece of zest with a peeler, place it between your thumb and indexfinger and squeeze it with the orange side towards the glass.

Mint Julep served in a traditional Julep Cup

This cocktail is probably the most associated cocktail with the deep south of the United States. The main reason for this is the Kentucky Derby of which the Mint Julep is the official drink. No less than 120,000 are served during this legendary event, which makes up for a good 6,000 litres of fine bourbon. The drink probably came to life in the 18th century, but the first written reference is in a publication by John Davis in 1803: “a dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by Virginians of a morning”. It was believed to give protection against Malaria. The name of the drink comes from the Arabian word “Golab”, which was a sweet mixture of rose petals and water. The drink than travelled through the Mediterranean, where the rose was replaced by mint. When it travelled to the U.S. spirit was added to it, but at that time it could be any spirit: brandy, genever, rum…I guess they just liked a lot of good stuff at that time. To the Southern citizens of the U.S., the Mint Julep has become almost a religion and recipes vary from city to city, so the one you can found below is just the one that I know tastes great. But again, that is just me.

Method:

Actually, the first start to this great drink would be the day before you want to drink it, or at least 4 hours before you start sippin’ away, so plan ahead! The first step is to pick about 12 large mint leaves from the stem. Pick them a little careful so they don’t get torn up! Are the leaves medium or small, take some extra. Next, you need to release the aromas of the mint: place all the leaves in one hand and clap your other hand on them. Put the leaves in a large tumbler or Julep Cup. This makes sure that the aromas will go in your drink, but you keep the bitter oils inside the leaves. So make sure the leafs do not break or tear.

The next ingredient you put inside is sugar: 1 heaped teaspoon of fine white sugar with 5 ml/.15 oz water or 10 ml/.3 oz of sugar water. Also, you add 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters in the glass. A dash is a short pour with the bottle held upside-down. Final addition for now is the Bourbon, 60 ml or 2 oz. This is Whiskey, made in the U.S. of A. which should be made from a grain-mixture that contains at least 51 % corn. Also, it should be aged for a little while in new, uncharred barrels. I will not bore you with other official rules for making bourbon, but should you be a curious person by nature, let me point you in the right direction here.  I suggest for you to invest at least a little money in a good bourbon, as the quality of this spirit determines the overall quality of your cocktail greatly. For my Dutch readers, here’s a good link to some good bourbons, but typing in “buy bourbon online” at Google will get you pretty far.

Press the mint leaves down gently in the cup or glass, so they are soaked in Bourbon and sugar and cover all up with clingfilm. Store in the fridge to keep it fresh.

Day 2 (or 4 hours later, but go for the 2nd day). First you prepare the ice, because that’s about the only thing you need  to add now. Make sure you have small cubes or preferably crushed ice (towel and hammer work just fine – just don’t make it too fine). Take the cup out of the fridge and fill with the ice cubes. Stir the contents slowly so it mixes nicely with the ice, garnish with a good sprig of mint and a short straw, so you can smell the mint. If you use a julep cup, you will notice that the outside will get frosted pretty fast, which makes it an even better-looking drink.

Cheers!